North Carolina learns lesson from home loss
Fifth-ranked North Carolina made use of its few days off to sort out what went wrong during an upset home loss to Wofford. Now sixth-ranked Miami and No. 7 Kentucky have to do the same.
The Tar Heels lost to Wofford on Wednesday — snapping a 23-game home win streak — before regrouping with a win over Ohio State in Saturday’s CBS Sports Classic in New Orleans. The Wildcats (9-2) lost to unranked UCLA in that same event in the marquee game of the week for a light AP Top 25 schedule.
Then, late Saturday, the Hurricanes followed with a loss to New Mexico State in the Diamond Head Classic in Hawaii.
The Tar Heels (11-2) were coming off last weekend’s win at No. 21 Tennessee when they turned in a clunker of a performance against the Terriers, from being sloppy with the ball to struggling for consistent defensive stops and offensive flow.
It was a performance that left coach Roy Williams criticizing “bad movement, bad defense, bad coaching” for a team he described as “fat and happy” — and it overshadowed the good news that Pittsburgh graduate transfer Cameron Johnson made his season debut after missing the first 11 games because of injuries.
After the 86-72 win against the Buckeyes, Williams said the team used the Wofford film as an extended tutorial.
“We went in and watched the tape of the entire game, and they listened to the coaches grade it while they were sitting there,” Williams said. “It was almost 2½ hours, so hopefully they learned something.”
Now it’s the Wildcats’ turn after the 83-75 loss to the Bruins.
‘Canes stumble
As for Miami, the Hurricanes (10-1) beat Hawaii in Friday’s Diamond Head first round in Honolulu but lost to New Mexico State in the semifinal. A win would’ve sent the Hurricanes into a Christmas Day title game against Southern California, which was ranked earlier this season. Instead, Miami will play Middle Tennessee State for third place.
Arizona’s climb
Arizona went from No. 2 to unranked in a week after a 0-3 showing at the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas, but the 18thranked Wildcats have won seven straight games after Thursday’s win over Connecticut.
Still unbeaten
Miami’s loss left three unbeaten teams in the poll: topranked Villanova (12-0), No. 3 Arizona State (12-0) and No. 15 Texas Christian (12-0).
TCU has the nation’s longest win streak at a school-record 17 games dating to last season’s National Invitation Tournament championship after Friday’s win over William & Mary.